Eek!! We've got mice!!

Peppermint oil is interesting, because with my rat problem [thankfully all sorted now] it recommended planting mint to deter them. Just as I'd dug up all the mint in the garden cause it was taking over.

The old-fashioned, spring-loaded mouse traps are the most humane option there is for ridding your house of mice. Another plus is that they kill the mouse in situ so you won't find dead mice behind your cushions unless you left a mouse trap there. These traps are also cheap and you can load them with peanut butter that the mouse can't get away with.

PS So-called humane traps that trap the mouse live so that you can take them away and release them are not humane because mice are territorial so if you release one outside its home territory, it will be attacked by the mice whose territory it is. If you release it in its home territory you haven't solved your mouse problem.

I agree bags

The chap I knew that used the glue traps was so upset, the mice are literally stuck to them and he said the noise that they made was awful

Longworth Live Trap, fill it with nice micey things to eat and leave it around where they play. Should trip the device then carry it to a place far away from your home and release.

Ah thatbags didnt' think of that. maybe then release it in your homeground and hope for the best. Will ask my Pet Naturalist for ideas when he returns. Please don't use spring traps though. They can take off legs and leave the animal in agony.

Then, spread peppermint oil around the outside of your house

Spring traps will only not kill the animal if they aren't properly set up or if the bait is too easy to get. That's why I recommend peanut butter. Hazelnutchoc spread would work too. Spring traps are the most humane option other than just letting mice live in your house.

Sorry to harp on about rats! Not flying ones this time ! We have had an infestation of rats UNDER my kitchen cupboard as well as mice. Time of year, they are cold. Had to call in the pest control man who has set traps around the outside of the house. I would agree with the spring traps for mice. More humane. We use peanut butter too and it seems to work well. Hate killing them but they leave an awful smell in the house - their wee I think. Sonic devices useless. As are our 2 cats! Must try the peppermint oil.

I use spring traps. The new clothes peg type ones are much easier to set. I have been quite ruthless since we found one in OH's pillow-case, after his siesta.

I must stop reading this thread about were you are finding mice it is feeling quite un comfortable now!!!!

Oh dear, I already have to hang pillowcases inside out since a friend reported finding a bee inside one.......... by lying on it.
I use peppermint oil on the threshold of open doors in summer. It stops the outside ants coming in.

I do like mice but not in the house, I have caught a few that my cat has brought in usually with an Obsession box and a shoe.

I go up to the loft every November and put down poison and spend all winter feling guilty about it, but if I don't we don't get any sleep. Our mice have hobnailed boots.

My sister though - she could see the rats running along her pergola and eating her grapes then running under her roof tiles. She read that if she mixed peanut butter with plaster of paris and rolled it into balls the rats would eat it and.... well, I shall leave it to your imagination. Not pleasant and I couldn't do it.

So she went into the chemists and asked for some plaster of paris, and was asked why she wanted it. She told the assistant, who looked horrified and went to fetch the chemist. He was furious and refused to sell it to her! He threatened to report her for cruelty to animals. I asked what she did next.

She went to another one, was asked again, and said she wanted to make ornaments from moulds!

Since when did plaster of paris become such a dangerous item to buy that chemists ask why you want it?

A cottage we stay in sometimes in Scotland had Pinemartens in the loft. They certainly sounded like elephants in hob nail boots.

The S.O. went to a chemist to get me some castor oil for blepharitis and was questioned by the pharmasist as to why I wanted it. And when I phoned round chemists to ask if they sold pepto bismol and said it was for the dog I was told they couldn't sell it to me, so I had to go to another chemist that stocked it.

I'm getting a bit upset about this thread. What's wrong with mice?

It's nothing personal ...

Just picked this up on Twitter! Alternative way of getting rid of pesky rodents?

"@UberFacts: Rats and mice laugh when they are tickled.”

They are destructive, mice. I guess you've never had chewed skirting boards and the mice who are chewing them keeping you awake at night because the noise is like having a large dog gnawing a bone right in your ear.

There are other problems too. Mice have chewed the insulation off our freezer pipes, also off water pipes in the cellar.

I like mice outside, especially wood mice, but house mice are a nuisance.

Not all mice do things like that.

Indeed they don't. This one is a model of perfection. As for the naughty ones, get a nice pussy cat. It will keep you company and the only bad mice will be dead ones brought in as presents.

When I was at boarding school, they totally destroyed the pocket of my gym slip!

What had you been keeping in there?

Mints, probably!

Yes, pinemartens, I had forgotten them! In Kent of all places! My next door neighbours had one, they were a bit shocked, having thought they would find a squirrel. It ate through all of their wiring and the loft boards. They took photos of it running across their lawn, no-one believed them before that.